Alicia Esteve Head, known as Tania Head, spent nearly six years as one of the most visible faces of the September 11 survivors’ community before a newspaper investigation exposed that she had never been in the United States during the attacks.
Head, who was actually living in Barcelona, Spain, and studying in graduate school on September 11, 2001, rose to become president of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network. She gave tours at Ground Zero and became deeply embedded in the community of people who had lived through the terrorist attacks.
Her fabricated account placed her on the 78th floor of the South Tower, working for Merrill Lynch, when the second plane struck. She described being thrown across a room by the impact, suffering a severe arm injury, and passing out before struggling to escape through corridors filled with badly burned and injured people.
Head also claimed she had been aided by Welles Remy Crowther, the volunteer known as the “man in the red bandanna” who died helping others escape the towers. In another dramatic element of her story, she said a dying man had pressed his wedding ring and business card into her hands, begging her to deliver them to his wife.
The deception extended to her personal life. Head told people that her husband — whom she sometimes called her fiancé — had been killed in the North Tower. This detail, like her entire presence at the World Trade Center that day, was untrue.
Angelo Guglielmo, who met Head while volunteering at Ground Zero, became closely involved with her work and later participated in a proposed documentary about her role in the survivors’ organization. He said that his connection to Head did not vanish immediately after the truth emerged, even as the revelations shocked those who had known and trusted her.
The fabric of Head’s story began unraveling when the outlet sought to profile her for the sixth anniversary of the attacks. She initially agreed to interviews but later canceled them. During routine background checks, reporters discovered that Merrill Lynch had no record of employing anyone by her name. Further reporting established her true identity and her actual location on September 11.
Robin Gaby Fisher, co-author of “The Woman Who Wasn’t There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception,” said in an NPR report featuring the book’s authors that Head never appeared to have profited financially from the fraud. Fisher believed Head had been driven instead by a craving for attention and a desire to become a public figure.
Despite the exposure of her lies, survivors interviewed for the book continued to acknowledge that Head had helped them feel recognized and supported in the aftermath of September 11. Her work with the organization had been instrumental in raising its profile within the broader 9/11 community, even as it was built entirely on a false foundation.
Head’s story stands as one of the most elaborate and sustained false narratives to emerge from the September 11 attacks, demonstrating how a compelling personal account could secure a place in a community of genuine survivors without verification.
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